


Patiently Waiting While Keeping a Wary Eye on Non-Pack Predators

by Shadow_of_Quill



Category: Rurouni Kenshin
Genre: Ficlet, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-29
Updated: 2014-08-29
Packaged: 2018-02-15 07:39:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2221014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadow_of_Quill/pseuds/Shadow_of_Quill
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The foreigners have psychic wolves, which every samurai knows for devil-beasts. Kenshin is not samurai.</p><p>(Or, Kenshin psychically bonds with a wolfpup.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Patiently Waiting While Keeping a Wary Eye on Non-Pack Predators

**Author's Note:**

> This is a tiny thing with vague references to canon and will only make sense if you already know RuroKen.

The wolfcub is tiny; almost too small to open its eyes, never mind focus them on its surroundings. The men whisper and mutter at seeing one of the demon-creatures the foreign warriors are said to feed their souls to.

All he can see is yet another life that this war will end.

The whispers fall silent as he picks it up, then return even louder. He smiles bitterly at the unknowing recipient of his kindness, aware that it will find itself tainted with the same cruel rumours that dog his every footstep.

The cub licks his fingers. His smile softens, taking on a gentleness he had thought lost to him.

Two demons together. It seems fitting.

***

The first time his wolf speaks he is so badly startled he stumbles, losing the kata he was performing to the shock of inhuman ki pushing meaning into his spirit.

If this is the wolfspeech he has heard of, he understands with far more clarity why so many of his countryfolk are wary of it. The foreigners probably do not have the training to truly know what their wolves do to speak with them, but all who know of ki would recognise the form of this communication.

The cub has a name for him: _motion of blade slicing wind in the calm of a perfectly-done kata_. He has no idea what to make of it.

He is startled and faintly amused to realise that he has named the cub in similar fashion. _Patiently waiting while keeping a wary eye on non-pack predators_ has no idea why he's surprised.

Their names describe what could be judged the core of their natures.

He feels unbalanced by the realisation that his name has no mention of blood.

***

She is beautiful, and graceful, and he never realised how much a small smile could brighten someone's world.

 _Patiently waiting while keeping a wary eye on non-pack predators_ bristles whenever she comes near, but does not snap as he would at a threat. Kenshin tells himself that his wolf will come to appreciate her.

But in the end, she is dying on his blade, and the deceptions which his wolf could sense but not understand are made horribly clear.

He sees to the body as _patiently waiting while keeping a wary eye on non-pack predators_ makes a weaving path along invisible boundaries. He might curl up to die here, but he is his wolf's only pack.

It seems fated, almost, that his only living companion is also considered a demon.

***

Kaoru is _determinedly protecting her pack_ , and the surprise of hearing _patiently waiting while keeping a wary eye on non-pack predators_ name her is only outweighed by the surprise of the realisation that no other has ever had a name to his wolf. Except _drawing blood with teeth snapping in warning_ , of course, whose nickname from the general populace is the highly ironic Wolf of Mibu.

Kenshin suspects, deep within himself, that the Wolf can hear _patiently waiting while keeping a wary eye on non-pack predators_ , if not as well as Kenshin himself can, then well enough to know his own name.

When Yahiko is named _fur bristling learning to hunt for himself_ and Sano is named _rough-tumbling eating good food_ and even Megumi is named _twitching ears and nimbly jumping over traps_ , however, he decides that it is simply that she was the first they met of this pack they seem to be building.

 _Patiently waiting while keeping a wary eye on non-pack predators_ sneezes at him to say he is being foolish, but does not explain. Instead, he goes to lean his head against Sano's thigh and receive a hard rub on just the right spot behind his ear.

 _Motion of blade slicing wind in the calm of a perfectly-done kata_ blinks after his packmate, and wonders what he is supposed to understand. _Twitching ears and nimbly jumping over traps_ laughs at him behind her politely-raised hand, and gives just as little explanation as the wolf.

**Author's Note:**

> The wolf-names intentionally don't have capital letters because it isn't the words themselves that are important, it's the meaning of the entire phrase. (On a related note, you cannot have a nickname for a wolf-name.)


End file.
